Holiday Treats Worth Their Weight in Gold

November 25, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 5 Comments

Welcome back Blind Pig Friends. How was your Thanksgiving? The big question is did you serve the Prosecco Peas? We know some of you considered it, but did you follow through? We had a great time eating turkey with family in the Show Me State! We always enjoy visiting the Midwest to see family during the holidays. We returned with a vehicle for Blind Pig #2. You can see more about that on Instagram. With our tummies full of turkey and Templeton Pecan Pie our sights now turn to the Christmas holiday season. We have lots of great ideas and recipes lined up to share with you from now until NYE.

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To kick off the season, we have a special, golden, sweet, treat for you. This cookie recipe has been in Rhonda’s stash for years and has long been a family favorite. These cookies easily make their way into the friends and family goody basket each season, but this year they are new and improved. When you put these goodies on Santa’s plate, they will not disappoint!

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What makes these cookies so special? We slipped a little extra something in the dough by adding Kerrygold Irish Cream. We’ve shared other recipes that featured Kerrygold before, such as, our Twisted Mississippi Mud Brownies. We dressed these cookies in their finest glittery holiday attire to add a festive flair. Our harshest critiques, Blind Pig #2 and Blind Pig #3 got in on the action of helping with this post by taste testing the results. Both piglets agreed that the Golden Mint Crinkles are better than the original recipe. (No Blind Piglets were harmed in the making of this post.)

To start you will need the following ingredients: flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, sugar, brown sugar, Kerrygold butter, vanilla, Kerrygold Irish Cream, eggs, package of Dove Dark Chocolate and Mint Swirl Chocolates, and gold sugar crystals. We found gold sugar crystals in the baking aisle at Kroger.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Blend well.

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In a large bowl, beat 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add Kerrygold Irish Cream and mix through. Add flour mixture slowly and mix well.

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Chill the dough for about an hour. Do not skip this step. It is very helpful to have well chilled dough for the next step.

Chill the dough for at least an hour

After dough has chilled and you have thoroughly washed your hands, unwrap the chocolates and place nearby in a bowl. In order to easily prepare the cookies, make sure chocolates, cookie sheets, golden sugar crystals poured into a saucer and a tablespoon are in close proximity. Before forming cookies, spray your hands with cooking spray. This enables you to form the dough around the chocolates while avoiding a clumpy, sticky mess. (We have learned this the hard way after years of making this recipe.) Scoop a spoonful of dough and place a chocolate inside the dough. Using your fingers, form the dough around the chocolate. Dip the dough in the sugar crystals and place on a cookie sheet. Continue until 12 cookies have been placed on the sheet. (We place our dough back in the fridge in between filling the trays.)

Ready for the oven

Bake cookies at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes. You do not want the cookies to be over baked. It is better to pull them from the oven looking a little under baked. You want the cookies to have a slightly crinkled or cracked look. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes after removing from the oven to continue the baking process. Next remove cookies from sheet and place on parchment paper to continue to cool.

Cookies will be slightly cracked

The yummy creaminess of the Kerrygold Irish Cream complements the chocolate cookie, and who can resist the melted minty goodness surprise on the inside?

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These treats will delight family and friends throughout the holiday season, and have them begging for the recipe. Golden Mint Crinkles are a hit at cookie exchanges. If you are a lucky recipient of a Blind Pig Holiday Goody Basket, you may be receiving some of these goldies.

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If you are viewing this post in your email, visit us at theblindpig.blog to find the printable recipe.

Try out the Golden Mint Crinkles. We would love to hear what you think!

If you are new to The Blind Pig Blog, welcome. We are glad that you stopped by. We would love to hear what you think about our blog and would love you even more if you became a permanent subscriber!

Here are some recent posts you may have missed:

Oh Pumpkin…Bread!

A Better Aperol Spritz

Hard Cider Donut Holes with Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce

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Please Pass the … Peas?

November 18, 2018November 25, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

prosecco peas

It’s so close to Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for here at The Blind Pig Blog. First and foremost we are incredibly thankful for all of the blessings we have received this past year. Of course, Blind Piglets #1, 2 and 3 top off the list! We were reflecting on some of our blessings the other night. It is such a shame that we live in such a fast paced world, that we are often focused on the next big thing instead of taking time to reflect and have gratitude. Another thing that we are very grateful for, as corny as it may sound, is all of our wonderful subscribers. We are so happy that you take time out of your lives each week to read our silly little blog and try out some of our flights of fancy. With that said, we are always welcome to more and more subscribers! Please use one of the subscriber buttons on our website and encourage friends and family to join us each week. We have many more fun recipes and concoctions to share with you through the holidays.

When you saw the title of today’s blog post, you may have thought, “Peas? Yuck!” (That’s what Craig thought. More on that in a bit.) We want you to hear us out. We discovered this recipe on the The Food Network website. It is a recipe originally created by Giada De Laurentiis, which is why it caught Rhonda’s eye (and of course the fact that it has bubbly prosecco as an ingredient).

Craig unfortunately was not raised with good peas. What we mean by that is that his mother made only canned, soggy peas for dinner. He hated peas so much that they were often the last thing on his plate. His mother would not let him leave the dinner table until his peas were eaten. Luckily, his mother had a huge fern next to the kitchen table. Craig, being the opportunist that he is, would scrape his peas into the potted plant when no one was looking. That is some serious pea issues to bring into adulthood. Fast forward a few decades and Rhonda is trying to convinced Craig that Prosecco Peas are not his mother’s peas.

Why now? Why peas? When we discovered this recipe, we decided that it would make an easy, tasty and fresh side dish for Thanksgiving. Keep on reading to the end for more tasty Thanksgiving suggestions.

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To make Procecco Peas, you will need a few simple ingredients. This is where our recipe diverges from Giada’s. We are sure her peas are quite delicious, but if the ingredients are not easy to find at our local Kroger, it is not going to make it on our table very often at mealtime. Are we right? You will need 4 ounces of bacon, sweet onion, a bag of frozen peas, fresh mint leaves, freshly grated parmesan, salt and prosecco. Stay with us. We are aware that the ingredients sound like an unusual combo, but the final product is delish!

First you cook the bacon in a large skillet. Drain off most of the fat. Next add the onions to the pan and cook until soft. Stir in the peas and cook until heated through. Raise the heat to high and add the mint, salt and parmesan. Toss to combine. Add the prosecco and remove the pan from heat. Stir until everything is evenly combined. That’s it!

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The bacon, prosecco and touch of cheese give these peas a delicious flavor. The bacon provides a nice complement to a turkey or ham dinner. If you make this for your Thanksgiving meal, you will be hearing lots of, “Please pass the peas.”

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If you are viewing this post in your email and would like a printable recipe. Please visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog.

As promised, we have some other great recipes that you might like to use during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Beverage Ideas:

3 Hot Chocolates with a Twist

Gold Medal Coffee

Golden Pumpkin Spiced Martini

Midnight Spice

Breakfast Ideas:

Angry Orchard Bread

Easy Pumpkin Beer Bread

Zaya Banana Bread

Kerrygold Cinnamon Rolls

Kerrygold French Toast

Sides:

Prosecco Peas

Autumn Salad

Snacks:

Salted Whiskey Caramel Corn

Desserts:

Templeton Pecan Pie

Wishing you a wonderful, safe Thanksgiving holiday!

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November Bonus Post: Oh Pumpkin!…Bread

November 15, 2018 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

easypumpkinbeerbread

Hey friends! So glad you’re back. We spent a super fun weekend with Blind Piglet #1 at Mizzou last weekend. We were so happy to see her and had a blast. However, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are thankful that we are no longer living the life of a college student. (We were worn out.)

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For our November Bonus Post we are returning to our tried and true easy bread recipe to give you a little pumpkin spice twist. We heard from many of you that tried our Apple Cider Bread recipe and thought that it was a huge hit. Of course the pumpkin bread has a few more ingredients than its apple cider sister, but is just as easy and delicious. We are sharing it with you in time to fix for the Thanksgiving holiday. Perhaps you need a little something extra to serve guests at breakfast the day of the turkey dinner? Or you want to bring a little something special to the hostess? This is the recipe for you — easy, tasty, fresh!

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To get started you will need self-rising flour, sugar, beer, pumpkin, honey and pumpkin pie spice. Beat together all of the ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees in a bread pan for about 50-55 minutes. Make sure to check the bread with a skewer before pulling from the oven. Ours needed a little extra time to bake.

Because of the pumpkin, this bread is very moist and delicious. It did not last long at our house.

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If you are viewing this post in an email, make sure to visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for the full printable recipe.

Be sure to look for our weekend post where we will be sharing a great Thanksgiving side recipe for your family meal!

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A Better Aperol Spritz

November 9, 2018November 8, 2018 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

aperol spritz Hello Friends! How was your week? We have been busy around The Blind Pig Headquarters searching and trying out a lot of new recipes to share with you! However, before we move on to something new, we wanted to share a classic cocktail with you that we feel we have actually made a little bit better.

Remember a couple of months ago when we went to California for a much needed anniversary trip? We stayed at our friend Mike’s house and he offered to make us an Aperol Spritz. Normally, Rhonda perks up at anything with the name of spritz because she knows it contains prosecco or something else bubbly and delicious. However, Rhonda has tried Aperol Spritz’s in the past. They were all the rage when she visited Blind Piglet #1 in London last spring. This classic cocktail has been a little bit heavy on the Aperol side, which takes some acquired taste. However, Mike’s Aperol Spritz was very drinkable and delicious. So Mike shared his secret sauce with us!

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To make an Aperol Spritz you need: Aperol, chilled prosecco, and olives in saltwater. What is Aperol? Aperol is an apertif made in Italy. It has a bitterness to it — thus why Rhonda did not like the flavor. The olives we used were purchased at Whole Foods. You want to make sure to splurge and buy some higher end olives to round out the bitterness of the Aperol. And while you’re at it — toss in more than one.

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Place a large cube of ice in your glass. It is very trendy to now serve an Aperol Spritz in a large cabernet wine glass. Since it is a classic cocktail it also has a distinct appeal in a rocks glass — especially when you use a large block of ice. Next pour in a ounce and half of Aperol over the ice. Pour 2 ounces of chilled prosecco over the Aperol. Finish with an olive or two. Sip and Savor. If the Aperol is too strong for your taste, just add a little more prosecco to your glass.

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If you are viewing this post in your email. Visit us at theblindpig.blog for a printable recipe.

Will you enjoy a classic Aperol Spritz this weekend? We would love to hear about it!

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A special shout out to some of our new subscribers! We are glad you stopped by. If you are new around here, make sure to check out these popular posts.

Blog Index

Six Great Drinks for Fall

The Easiest Bread You’ll Ever Make

Pecan Whiskey Ice Cream

Disclaimer: Beverages on this site are meant for adults 21 years of age and older. We do not condone underage drinking, and never drink and drive.

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Holey Moley: Hard Cider Donut Holes with Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce

November 2, 2018November 1, 2018 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

hard cider donut holes

How was your Halloween? Did you try one of the Six Great Drinks for Fall this week? Our final post for our Apple Fest series is an easy recipe for making Hard Cider Donut Holes. We know you are thinking that donuts seem like a lot of work and really hard to make. We thought that at first. Rhonda remembers making homemade donuts with her mom when she was a youngin’, but she hasn’t made them in years. Craig? Well… if you know Craig he’s eaten plenty of donuts in his life, but never made any. After reading this post, you will see how easy it is to make your own donuts. By the way, these donuts are not for breakfast. No way. These donuts are drizzled in a delectable chocolate sauce, to be served as a dessert!

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To get started you will need 1 bottle of hard cider. (We used Angry Orchard Rose’ for this recipe.) You need all-purpose flour, wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cardamon, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, eggs, melted butter, and oil for deep fat frying.

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Bring cider to a boil in a saucepan and cook over high heat for about 12 minutes.

Whisk together flours, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices. In a separate bowl whisk eggs, melted butter and cooler cider. Stir into dry ingredients until moistened. Beware the dough is very sticky at this point, but the spices make it smell so yummy. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

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Divide the dough in half. On a floured surface, pat the dough into 1/2 inch thickness. Flour a donut hole cutter and cut holes.

In a iron skillet, heat oil to 325 degrees. Fry donuts a few at a time until golden brown. Ours only needed to cook for about 1-2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Sift powdered sugar over the tops of donuts and continue to cool. Now wasn’t that easy?

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To make the donuts even more delectable, we decided to drizzle Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce over the top. Yummo!

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If you are viewing this post though your email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog to view a full recipe.

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Hard cider donuts have a nice, spicy flavor and the chocolate sauce only adds to the overall yumminess. This recipe was a simple delicious hit in our house. Make them this weekend, and let us know what you think!